My Day in the Kitchen

I had a lovely Sunday spent in the kitchen for some much needed therapy. I use cooking and baking to relax and unwind. I love that by combining a few raw ingredients you end up with something completely new. Flour, water, yeast and olive oil make a lovely tender and crispy pizza dough.

I started out my morning by making some whole wheat pizza dough. So simple, takes only a few minutes to mix up and completely satisfying. My recipe made four individual size pizza. I ate one and froze the others so I could enjoy homemade dough any night of the week. I also discovered that  is my Pampered Chef Mini-Baker is the perfect size individual pizza baker too. I wish that I had some fresh mozzarella and basil but I made due with some part skim mozzarella. The mini-baker is made of the same stoneware that the pizza stones are made of so it left a delicious crispy bottom in only about 15 minutes. I bet they could be pre-made, baked off, cooled and frozen for a quick work lunch or for an after school snack. Yummm... add some sauteed peppers, onions and sausage. It is just as quick, tastier and much healthier for you than the store bought frozen pizzas.

As per my previous post about roasted veggies. I am still obsessing over them. I had some left over broccoli from a few days ago. Past its prime for eating raw but deliciously suited for roasting. The broccoli gets this nutty, intense flavor that can not be achieve any other way. I love adding whole cloves of garlic, olive oil and some salt/pepper. Along with my pizza it made a delicious lunch and was well within my diet guidelines.

The tofu chili did not photograph well. I will have a recipe to follow with much better pictures. I added some lentils instead of bean because I had some left over. The soy bean is amazing. It is used in everything from 

powering cars to making rich creamy smoothies and everything in between.

Next on the menu was baked turkey meatballs. I was worried about them being dry between the baking and the 99% fat free turkey I used. To prevent this I use a slice of my Arnold Flax Seed & Fiber bread (I actually used the "useless" end.) I soaked it in water and squeezed it dry and added it to the ground turkey. Out of 3/4 lb I made nine plus a little taster one to make sure the seasoning was correct. I let them cool on the baking sheet and popped them into the oven to eat with my homemade whole wheat pasta.

How exciting! I got a Pasta Roller Set for my KitchenAid Mixer for Christmas. I have never made pasta before. I was very excited in the idea of experimenting with different flavors, shapes and testing old recipes with fresh pasta. Nothing is better than fresh pasta. You just can not get that al dente taste with store bought dried pasta. It is amazing how expensive the fresh store bought pasta is when it is so easy to make. Water, flour and eggs, soo simple. Even more simple than the pizza dough.

The pasta roller set came with four different pasta recipes; egg, semolina, light whole wheat, whole wheat and spinach. I decided to try the light whole wheat pasta recipe. Now, I know some do not believe in making pasta dough with anything but a counter top and a set of hands, but I'm busy! I simply dumped all of the ingredients into the stand mixer using the kneading hook I let it run for two minutes. It did seem a little dry so I added another tablespoon of water and let it go for another minute. Perfect! I dumped it onto my cutting board kneaded it to a loaf and let it rest for a few minutes. After resting I sliced into eight pieces as per instructed by recipe. Well, here goes nothing. I wish I could have taken pictures as I was rolling out the dough but I have yet to grow a third hand. I'm sure I will find a future volunteer to photograph for food. I decided on a fettuccine width and using a clean kitchen towel I was off! Look at my beautiful whole wheat fettuccine nests. I recipe made ten servings with a few pieces boiled up for an immediate irresistible taste test.

Honestly, If you make the dough ahead and refrigerating it you could get fresh pasta on the table in the same amount of time it would take you to boil up dried pasta! Unlike store bought whole wheat pasta my pasta did not have that toothy gritty dry texture. It had the familiar chewy al dente texture familiar to only the best Italian restaurants. What a lovely day. I can't wait to eat and serve all of my delicious food. Happy cooking!